Girl on pavement, San Francisco, March 2007
The girl sits small. Like she’s alone in a tiny space. Withdrawn into some shell. Away from all noises and everything.
A woman sits beside her on the sidewalk. A jacket covering her where she sits. They’re an odd pair. Occasionally they exchange words and glances.
The girl is from Oregon. Eugene. Her name is Cierra “with a ‘c’ not an ‘s.’” She’s been in San Francisco for about a year. She’s been downtown for less time. She doesn’t like it. She was in the Haight before. She liked that.
She says she made certain choices. And one result was where she had to be.
“Choices” the woman echoes. “That’s a nice way to put it.”
The woman’s name is Vicki. Says she had waited here for Cierra a long time before she finally saw her.
Vicki just came down from Oregon. She’s Cierra’s mother.
She came to see if Cierra would let herself be “saved”.
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Tom Stone is an artist known for his deeply emotional iconic images. He seeks to photograph people along the lesser and greater edges of exercised authority, control and influence. This motivates his humanitarian photography as well as his commercial and entertainment work. Artist Representative: Angela Vincent -213.373.1018 / angela@tomstonegallery.com.
Tom Stone
About Jack Varnell
Vocalyze
It’s very sad that all of these homeless men are neglected by society and men make up the vast majority of homeless neglected by government programs.
What are good men doing about it besides taking pictures?
I hope I’m not feeding the trolls here, but on the off chance your question is genuine, Bad Man, I’ll tell you what I do:
I raise money for homeless NGOs and charities locally, participate in events like Cardboard Box City (see my article about that here on GMP), help host homeless families, and help steer homeless people into shelters and treatment programs, and teach my children to do the same, and I pray for homeless people everywhere.
Tell us about what you do.
Thanks for this piece. “To my thinking, the original human trauma is our separation. We are too close not to need each other; and too far to trust each other. We rely on dubious senses and clever devices to interact; but we are alone in our thoughts. Lonely, insecure and uncertain; we pair, we group, we associate. We try to belong and we seek to exclude. We form bonds by geography, religion, economy and otherwise. But it is all precarious. We come together and we drive apart.” Love it.
Jack, Tom: this is a wonderful photo essay that I’m very proud to see here on GMP. Thanks for sharing the images and stories with us.
Thanks Todd. I am proud of this piece. Tom Stone is the embodiment of the GMP ethos, and troll bait or not a nerve gets struck, and my involvement gets called into question. I get the choice to do something or not. That is the highest call for an artist like Tom. Awareness is the first step. Then the discussion, and action, or not. GMP exists for those very reasons, and I can only hope to ask, discuss, and answer those questions in myself through that awareness. The world is not always beautiful, but there is beauty in the ugliest places…I wholeheartedly stand behind my opening paragraph. I have to live with that. GMP does a fine job of that too.
Haunting. It is difficult to look at these photos and not see your own humanity reflected back at you in the eyes, not knowing that luck, a few particular people, a few particular choices here and there are all that separate you. Strip away the clothes, the hair, the skin, the body and what you have is another human soul reminding you that we are, collectively, one and the same.
Carla- Exactly. EXACTLY.